The following table of alcohol laws of the United States provides an overview of alcohol-related laws by state throughout the US. This list is not intended to provide a breakdown of such laws by local jurisdiction within a state; see that state's alcohol laws page for more detailed information.
As of July 1988, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had a minimum purchase age of 21, with some grandfather clauses. Prior to 1988, the minimum purchase age varied by jurisdiction. After Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in July 1984, states not in compliance had a portion of their federal highway funding withheld. South Dakota and Wyoming were the final two states to comply, in mid-1988.
Unlike on the mainland, the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have a minimum purchase age of 18. The minimum purchase age is 21 in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.
U.S. military reservations are exempt under federal law from state, county and locally enacted alcohol beverage laws. Class Six stores in a Base Exchange facility, an Officers' and/or NCO clubs as well as other military commissaries which are located on a military reservation may sell and serve alcohol beverages at anytime during their prescribed hours of operation to authorized patrons¹.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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“The members of a body-politic call it “the state” when it is passive, “the sovereign” when it is active, and a “power” when they compare it with others of its kind. Collectively they use the title “people,” and they refer to one another individually as “citizens” when speaking of their participation in the authority of the sovereign, and as “subjects” when speaking of their subordination to the laws of the state.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)